Wednesday, 17 June 2015

E-com portals to file tax returns every quarter

In a
first for the city, Delhi government's Value Added Tax department has
decided to bring all big and small players on e-commerce platforms under
the scanner to check evasion of tax.

A notification is under
way to make it mandatory for all online portals like Flipkart and
Snapdeal to file tax returns quarterly. All dealers operating through
these platforms will also be expected to file their returns. Failure to
do so will evoke action.

The department has prepared a detailed
set of guidelines on the process to be followed for all online portals
and even the dealers transacting through them.

"The Delhi Value
Added Tax Act gives us the power to ask everyone doing trade of taxable
goods to file their returns. We are citing Section 70 of the Act which
empowers to bring in a notification for this purpose. This will also
enable us to identify the dealers registered with the VAT department and
operating on these platforms. This will eventually ensure that the
non-registered dealers also comply and register with the department,"
VAT commissioner, Sanjeev Khirwar said.

The dealers will be
expected to declare their details with regards to transactions executed
through these portals both in Delhi and outside.

Khirwar said
the notification can be expected in a day or two. "We will later check
the data of registered dealers who are also selling and purchasing
through online portals to check for any discrepancy in their statements
filed as part of the tax returns," he said.

States like
Karnataka, Kerala and Rajasthan too have been working on bringing
e-commerce operators under the scanner by way of compulsory filing of
returns. With Delhi ready to notify the process, the department is
hopeful that this will be a step to check tax evasion by dealers.

In 2014, the VAT department had started an exercise to scan the
transaction records of big online portals as part of a drive to check
bogus dealers from misusing the e-commerce platform. The government had
also asked registered dealers operating on online portals to submit
their tax declarations for the past two financial years.